Digital Radio The Coming Citizen Media Opportunity
If you have not been paying attention to digital or HD Radio, you should. It will revolutionize the way we listen to radio in the way cable TV revolutionized how way we watch television. It also will present many opportunities for niche programming, including, one would guess, citizen journalism or citizen media in general.
With HD radio each broadcaster will be able to present several digital options on the same frequency. So for example if you think, as I do, that WABE, public radio in Atlanta, runs too much classical music, you eventually probably will have the option to listen to news on one of its multiple options.
Earlier this year CNET News.com reported:
In HD radio, up to eight separate stations can be squeezed into the same spectrum currently allotted for a single station. As a result, broadcasters can offer multiple channels of related programming; a classical station, for instance, could dedicate channels to chamber music or opera. Ideally, this will lead to more listeners and advertisers.
Using HD radio will require a new radio with digital reception capabilities, and they are now coming on the market.
Plus the CNET News.com article says:
“Rewards are likely to come in the form of free radios during pledge drives…at National Public Radio affiliates.”
MediaWeek reports that with:
15 manufacturers offering HD Radio receivers, the industry hopes the number of consumers that can receive their digital signals will grow to the hundreds of thousands in 2006 and millions in 2007.
Here is one new blog that is watching the digital radio progression.
